The Wonders of Bleach Shampoo

It has been about 2 months since I’ve been DIY-ing on hair color and hair care and so far, I thank God that my hair has not been too damaged. It has improved without me spending so much money and having the gift of time. I mean seriously, with DIY, you follow your own schedule, you do things from the comforts of your own home and you feel that you have overpaid with a result that you are not too happy. I mean, my old stylist is known here in Muntinlupa and he is really good but I just have to be practical and I am starting to be more expressive and adventurous with my hair color. Maybe with my hair cut, I will still have him work on my hair but to be honest, I miss my long hair so I am growing it out but maybe I’ll get it cut, whatever.

I was so afraid to bleach my hair because my hair is damaged enough and bleaching it would result to those straw-like ands and I just cannot live with that so I have been researching and reading blogs and I bumped into bleach bath or bleach shampoo. It is a much safer way to lighten your hair, it may take more than one session for you to get the shade that you want before you go blonde or something but it does wonders to your hair. My hair was softer after the bleach bath and it did lighten my hair! But if there’s anything that I can complain about the bleach bath is that it’s not even. Boo! I believe it is because of the mixture of bleach powder, oxidizing lotion and shampoo, you can mix them as much as you can but you cannot get an even mixture of each component in the whole thing so there will be parts that has more bleach and they will give that part of the hair lighter shade, usually this is the bottom part of the bleach shampoo since the bleach powder do not dissolve in the mixture, it is heavier and goes to the bottom of the container so you have to do this near your roots if your roots are dark. They say Asians do not have black hair, most just have dark brown that appears to be black but I have really black hair so dyeing it makes it impossible for me to get the color in the box if I do not lighten my hair.

So, I read from an article that you have to do this twice a week for three weeks if you’re planning to go blonde and so far I am starting to be scared with how light it is but I was like, well, if I am going to be blonde, I might as well just endure this and see how my life will change. Haha. So how to bleach bath? This goes in a ratio of 1:1:2 for your bleach powder, oxidizing lotion and shampoo. What do I use and where do I buy my things? Bleach powder and oxidizing lotion is from hortaleza. I use the 12% oxidizing lotion in which the sales lady did not argue when she saw how my roots are dark and how my supposedly red hair turned to red violet, thank you dark pigments. She advised me though that one pack of bleach powder is equivalent to 2 60ml bottle of oxidizing lotion. With experimentations, I ended up using half of the bleach powder pocket, 60ml of 12% oxidizing lotion and 80ml shampoo. For the shampoo, during the first week, I first used L’oreal ColorVive Shampoo (120ml for the first session) and Pantene Total Damage Repair Shampoo (80ml for the second session). So I did it twice, the first one I did it Friday around 1am and then on Saturday 9pm. Apply on wet hair. After application, I put on shower cap and then leave on hair for 20-30 minutes. I followed each session with Hortaleza Keratin Treatment, I used one sachet.

Tips: Wear gloves because they say that bleach burns you or something, I did not want to experience it firsthand. Wear clothes and use towel that you did not care for too much.

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored or endorsing any of the products mentioned above.

I apologized because I did not have any pictures of the actual process, it was really difficult with the gloves, me timing myself because I was scared, it was my first time and it’s not like I know what I am doing!  Anyway, here is the before and after picture. 

Red violet-ish after I used HairFix Hair Coloring Shampoo

After I bleach shampoo! It is brown, the red pigments left my head already and see how my hair is so soft!

I am starting to have that copper brown head. Hmmmm, interesting and weird.

This one is taken outdoors!

Ang light na niya! Wah! This is after the second session of bleach shampoo-ing for this week.

Update: As mentioned, the bleach bathing should be done for three weeks. So here are the pictures, for the second week, I am planning to add deep conditioning and I used the deep conditioner from Human Nature. Here are the results:

The first session for the second week of bleach shampooing

When I went outdoors for a run the morning following the bleach bath

Natural light outdoors! This is after using the deep conditioner from Human Nature, as you can see, my hair is less frizzy compared to the picture above. 

Update: I realized that even after you bleach shampoo, your hair still gets lighter as days pass by, I am not sure if it's because of the hair ritual that I had acquire to ensure the health, moisture and strength of my hair. I only use shampoo on an every other day basis, I condition my hair daily and I also use deep conditioner on an every other day basis, on days that I use shampoo. Anyway, for my third week, I used clarifying shampoo for my bleach bath so I think that helped in lifting and lighting my hair. Here is the result.